In our previous lessons we’ve been discussing the hidden meanings behind a passage of scripture found in Numbers Chapter Five which speaks of the test for an unfaithful wife.
There are so many hidden messages in this one passage and we have decided to explore them further in our next few lessons in the COME AS A CHILD Bible Study; which we conduct here on this blog every Thursday.
It is important that you read last week’s lesson first so that you can understand the whole concept of what we are exploring here.
If you missed it; click here for review: /http://test-for-a-wife-accused-of-adultery-come-as-a-child-lesson-258/
We are delighted that you could join in with us for today’s discussion.
CONSIDER THE GOLDEN CALF
First, let’s think about the story of The Golden Calf.
When this terrible sin happened during the time that God was giving Moses the law up on the Mountain; Moses eventually tried to help the people by pleading with God for mercy.
Moses reminded God of the oath He had taken with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and spoke of how God had stated He would “make their descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven.”
Moses also reminded God of how He had promised the people He would give their descendants all of this land (the promised land) and recalled the fact that God had promised they would possess it forever.
This all plays out as if God were being depicted as the “jealous husband” from our former story, and Moses was being depicted as the priest asking for righteousness to be revealed.
We are told that Moses, in his agitated state, held up his hands which contained the two tablets of the law inscribed on the front and the back.
They were the words written by the finger of God.
AN OFFERING AND SOME WORDS
When we look at this picture from this side of history; we can almost see that the ten commandments were being waived before God like an offering.
We can’t help but think of the WORDS that were written on the scroll to accuse the woman and the words that would accuse the guilty when the bitter water was taken to drink.
These same words that convicted and accused also had the power to preserve the innocent. How many times have we called Christ; The Living Word?
Also; how many times have we referred to the holy scriptures as The WORD of God?
This very same story pattern just keeps repeating in a million different little ways all the way through the scriptures. We can see this amazing pattern over and over again.
TAKING THE BITTER DRINK
When Moses left the mountain and came to the camp where the idolatry and perverted worship was going on, he threw the tablets to the ground, breaking them into shatters and pieces.
He burned the calf and ground it into powder, threw the powder into water and forced the people to drink.
Does this sound a bit familiar?
Were the people guilty before God?
God was a very jealous husband indeed!
THE DAY 3000 PEOPLE DIED
When Moses saw how much Aaron had let the people get out of control, he stood at the entrance of the camp and shouted; “All of you who are on the LORD’s side come here and join me.”
It was then that the Levites (which we have just studied) gathered around Moses.
Moses instructed them from the Lord to take their swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other and kill everyone – even their brothers, friends and neighbors. Amazingly; the Levites obeyed this command and about 3,000 people died that day.
That day the test for the jealous husband proved fatal for many. Verdict: GUILTY
THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE
Moses told the Levites when it was over that they had obeyed the LORD in spite of their own feelings and desires.
He commended them and declared that God would give them a blessing because of it.
In the test of the unfaithful wife we are told; should the test prove her innocence; that God will bring justice to her and reward her with children and a heritage.
Thinking more about the sins with the golden calf; we know that Moses determined to go back up on the mountain and try to seek forgiveness for the sins of Israel. Moses went back and confessed to God the sins of the people. He asked God for forgiveness. He pleaded with God and then he said; “But now , if you will only forgive their sin – but if not, erase my name from the record you have written!”
In the test for adultry; the woman may either drink the water or decide not to. If she decided not to (because of guilt) she was taken out right then and justice was served.
Also; she could decide to drink the bitter water. Remember the scroll in our first story? It was the scroll with the woman’s name and all of her sins written down with the accusations that were against her. That scroll was dipped into the bitter water by the priest until all of the words were washed out into the mix and no longer showed up on the scroll.
Moses was saying; “let these sins be on me and erase my name from your book of those who will live. I will take their sins upon myself. I will take responsibility for them; since I was not there when all the trouble started and I am their leader.”
God surprised Moses with his answer. He said He would NOT erase Moses’ name from the book of the living and that he would forgive all of the people who had sinned against him.
Then he told Moses to GO and to continue to lead the people to the promised land; however, God’s Angel would go before them and when God came to the people again He would hold them accountable for their sins.
Accountability came around again. It always does. God sent a great plague upon the people for worshiping the Golden Calf. It is easy to see how this plague that punished their guilt was comparable to the bitter water turning bad inside their belly and making the guilty party sick.
This sin with the golden calf was spiritual adultery!
God is a jealous God.
The plague was like unto drinking the bitter waters when you are guilty. Spiritual adultery, like physical adultery, does not typically go unpunished.
Another time later some of the priests were causing trouble for Moses and Aaron and trying to take over their place in the priesthood.
These selfish men made all kinds of false accusations and dishonored the men of God. God was not a bit happy. The men of Korah were jealous of Moses and Aaron and they wanted to take their place.
God spoke into the situation. Afterwards Moses and Aaron told the people God’s words, then they went to the entrance of the tabernacle and they fell face-down before God.
This act of Moses and Aaron would be comparable to the priest presenting a guilty woman before God for his judgment. By going to tabernacle and falling on their faces before God, was as if they were asking God to judge between them and the men of Korah.
God did.
Moses’ comments in this situation are very interesting, especially if you think of the story of the test for an unfaithful wife. He said to the LORD: “Do not accept their grain offerings! I have not taken so much as a donkey from them and I have never hurt a single one of them.”
Moses knew God would require a grain offering on their behalf.
It is a very similar situation concerning jealousy; only instead of a husband and wife being jealous of one another or suspecting one another; the priesthood is participating against another part of the priesthood. How sad this must have been (and still would be) in God’s eyes.
In order to get the matter settled Moses told the men from Korah that tomorrow they were to come and present themselves before the LORD.
Korah stirred up the people that night against Moses and Aaron and the the next morning the whole community was now coming against the men God had appointed.
I can’t help but think of situations in today’s culture where God’s church is persecuted and wrongly accused; just as Moses and Aaron in this particular story. There is someone always waiting to do the devil’s work for him; someone stirring up the people and playing on their emotions instead of declaring the righteousness of God.
When everyone gathered at the entrance to the tabernacle the next day; God told Moses and Aaron to move away because He was going to destroy everyone there.
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and pleaded with God not to destroy the whole community because of one man’s sin (Korah’s.)
I think of Abraham and his famous conversation with God when he asked if there were only so many innocent men; would God consider and not destroy a city. Abraham’s pleas with God for the innocent saved not only his nephew Lot; but many others too.
What will happen today? Will a whole nation be destroyed for the sins of a few? I had to consider that possibility.
Back to the original story though; we know that when Moses summoned the accusers, they refused to come. (Remember how this is an automatic “guilty” verdict in our original story?)
So; Moses went to their tent and told them that they would soon see and know that the Lord had sent him to do all of the things that he had done, and that he had not been acting on his own accord.
Godly men who are simply doing right and following God’s will never have to worry about self-defense. God looks after those who follow Him. He will not forsake His own. In the affairs of men; God always has the last word.
In this particular case; Moses spoke out and declared that if these men (his accusers) died a natural death; then the LORD had not sent him; but if the LORD does something entirely new; they would know that his accusers had shown contempt for the LORD.”
This is just like the judgment of the woman accused of adultery by a jealous husband – the woman has to show up and participate in the proceedings in order to be pronounced innocent; but if she doesn’t it is assumed by all that she is admitting guilt.
The test will prove who is innocent and who is guilty in the end.
Moses had hardly finished speaking before the ground split and swallowed up Korah. Fire blazed from The LORD and burned up the 250 men who were offering incense with Korah.
Again, the whole community was muttering against Moses and Aaron and saying “You have killed the LORD’s people!”
It was then that the Presence of The LORD appeared at the Tabernacle. God told Moses and Aaron to move out of His way because He was going to destroy all of the people.
Moses told Aaron to take an incense burner and place burning coals on it from the altar. He told Aaron to lay incense on it and carry it out among the people.
Aaron did this but the plague had already begun to strike down many of the people.
That day the High Priest of Israel (Aaron) stood between the dead and the living; purifying the people who were left until the plague stopped.
14,700 people died that day not counting those who had already died in the earlier episode with Korah.
This time of the plague would be similar to the effect of the bitter waters on the guilty. People’s true actions were being proved out by God’s judgment.
Moses’ and Aaron’s intervention and prayers to God saved the others and it was comparable to Christ bringing salvation to the earth. Many who did not deserve forgiveness received salvation and were saved from death and separation from the camp forever.
All of this can be compared to a woman accused and being proven either guilty or innocent by God.
There are NUMEROUS stories of this in the scriptures; all of them with the same bones and the same basic results every time.
Almost every story of the bible you read afterward brings some type of remembrance to this story of the jealousy offering and the test of the jealous husband.
God proved to the people through Moses that Aaron was still to be the High Priest by telling Moses to have the people of Israel bring him twelve wooden staffs. Each tribe of Israel was represented by a different staff.
Their names were carved and inscribed on each staff.
Aaron’s name was inscribed on the staff for the tribe of Levi.
The staffs were to be placed before the tabernacle in front of the Ark.
Again, this act was a lot like the woman being positioned in front of God in the original story. The staffs were “official” with names on them; a lot like the name of the woman being written down on parchment along with her accusations and washed in the water of the bitter mixture.
The Ark contained the tablets of the law. It is clear that the names were being placed before the weight of the law.
God told Moses that buds would sprout from the rod of the man that He had chosen.
The next day Moses saw that the rod of Aaron representing the tribe of Levi had sprouted, budded, blossomed and produced ripe almonds.
After that Aaron’s staff was placed permanently before the Ark of the covenant to serve as a warning to all rebels.
Like the woman accused of adultery but innocent, like the accusations against Jesus outside the gates of the city, like Moses standing with the law in his hands beside the golden calf; like Moses and Aaron against Korah; like the Levites who were obedient at all cost; God is a jealous husband. He does not wish for his people to worship any other gods. He judges those who do; and He defends those who do not.
I’ll ask every nation on earth to take a closer look at how they stand. The same God who brings judgement also brings chesed love, mercy and forgiveness.
What do you want?
We will look into much more of these amazing comparisons next week. The possibilities of teachings are endless as we read straight from this tiny, little obscure book of Numbers, Chapter five.
There is so much more to see!